BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Mariah Carey will join "American Idol" as a judge next season, Fox announced Monday, bringing her star power to the show that remains a ratings leader but has seen its viewership and pop culture status diminish.

"I am so excited to be joining 'Idol,'" said Carey, addressing the Television Critics Association via Fox entertainment chief Kevin Reilly's cell phone, which he put on speaker for the hotel ballroom meeting.

A Colorado prosecutor says James Holmes, the suspect in the mass shooting at a midnight Batman film screening could face the death penalty. Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Chambers said Monday that her office is considering it.

In a one-paragraph e-mail to the Los Alamos Monitor, Republican candidate Roger Waterman announced he was withdrawing from the county council race Monday.

The statement read: “Due to business and professional issues that have arisen over the last several weeks, I am withdrawing as a candidate for the Los Alamos County Council. I regret disappointing my many supporters. I will be returning any financial support I have received to those who supported me in that manner.”

"I'm really disappointed," Waterman said in a phone interview. "I really have an interest in governmental affairs. The timing was just bad."

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NCAA slammed Penn State with an unprecedented series of penalties Monday, including a $60 million fine and the loss of all coach Joe Paterno's victories from 1998-2011, in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Other sanctions include a four-year ban on bowl games, the loss of 20 scholarships per year over four years and five years' probation. The NCAA also said that any current or incoming football players are free to immediately transfer and compete at another school.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The ranks of America's poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net.

Census figures for 2011 will be released this fall in the critical weeks ahead of the November elections.

The Associated Press surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks and academics, both nonpartisan and those with known liberal or conservative leanings.